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I presume they are aiming high on the back of the superior longevity of the graphene soul and kevlar reinforced upper. Yet to see any real evidence for this and in my experience any inov8 shoe with the word 'mesh' in the description of the upper will get trashed in next to no time.

Had to laugh on Facebook when someone pointed out it may well be marketing hype... the response was...

"it's not marketing hype, it's scientifically proven"

The VJ Irocks use the Kevlar technology and seem to be well reviewed and long lasting. A bit cheaper as well. It the Inov8's do match their own hype they could be onto a winner, but are they just playing catchup to what's already out there?

I'm not here to slag off Inov8 by the way, am very much a fan of mudclaws, although recent events have led me to look at alternatives.

In fairness, £140 is pretty standard for shoes now. Salomon have had shoes at that price for years and it's in line with many of inov-8's other models. I'd expected them to be much more expensive.

RRP is also fairly standard compared to most road shoes at the moment (though we live in an age of discounting & Iím hard pushed to find any runner who pays over £100 for any shoes).

The grip thing doesnít quite, erm, stick for me. For years, climbing shoes have looked for stickier rubber. Granted, shoes now are stickier than they were in the eighties. However, this stickiness is short lived & durability is lower on the most sticky soles.

Also, Iím yet to encounter a climbing shoe that sticks to wet rock - itís common place in the climbing community to acknowledge that these conditions are less than ideal (& mostly wait until itís dry). Whilst Iím not suggesting fell runners hold out for a dry day (almost entirely pointless!), good grip on wet rock is anathema - after all, stopping distance on cars/bikes etc is increased in the wet even with a winter tyre on. Learning technique is key (blah blah blah!)

I've been a fan of the Mudclaw since the old grey/red one. (270 or 272?) The 300 is still my favourite shoe for fell runs and would not do a race in anything else. They are currently RRP £115 but you can pick them up easily for £80-£90 perhaps even less if you shop around. I wonder how many will actually be paying the full £140 RRP or if they will get heavily discounted but either way I'm not seeing enough benefit to fork out an additional £30 or so.

The grip thing doesn’t quite, erm, stick for me. For years, climbing shoes have looked for stickier rubber. Granted, shoes now are stickier than they were in the eighties. However, this stickiness is short lived & durability is lower on the most sticky soles.

Also, I’m yet to encounter a climbing shoe that sticks to wet rock - it’s common place in the climbing community to acknowledge that these conditions are less than ideal (& mostly wait until it’s dry). Whilst I’m not suggesting fell runners hold out for a dry day (almost entirely pointless!), good grip on wet rock is anathema - after all, stopping distance on cars/bikes etc is increased in the wet even with a winter tyre on. Learning technique is key (blah blah blah!)

fair point, but it is all relative. i believe i have had some fell shoes that are much grippier than others. the first mudclaw i ever had were the ones with grey soles and they were dreadful. other mudclaw were better, and nothing i have tried to date compares with the grip on the VJ Sports iRock2 (Jonathan Alban has said he owes his Glencoe Skyline win to them when he beat Killian who was wearing Salomon and the rocks were wet) - but i haven't tried these new inov8s yet of course.

fair point, but it is all relative. i believe i have had some fell shoes that are much grippier than others. the first mudclaw i ever had were the ones with grey soles and they were dreadful. other mudclaw were better, and nothing i have tried to date compares with the grip on the VJ Sports iRock2 (Jonathan Alban has said he owes his Glencoe Skyline win to them when he beat Killian who was wearing Salomon and the rocks were wet) - but i haven't tried these new inov8s yet of course.

Pretty sure Killian beat Jonathan Albon. Think there was only a few minutes in it though.

Had to laugh on Facebook when someone pointed out it may well be marketing hype... the response was...

"it's not marketing hype, it's scientifically proven"

The VJ Irocks use the Kevlar technology and seem to be well reviewed and long lasting. A bit cheaper as well. It the Inov8's do match their own hype they could be onto a winner, but are they just playing catchup to what's already out there?

I'm not here to slag off Inov8 by the way, am very much a fan of mudclaws, although recent events have led me to look at alternatives.

That was me, a gimmick and a ripoff. Did'nt half wind the fb warriors up. The're gagging for it, and would belive any crap. Naive lovies